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..Brooklyn born, Puerto Rican painter and installation artist Yasmin Hernandez reveals and celebrates the (s)heroes of hidden histories. Her work is rooted in the legacies and struggles of marginalized communities. Daring to comment on topics that few others touch upon, she received an Artist/ Activist of the Year award in 2006 from the NYC-based organization Art for Change. She is also a recipient of the Ramón Feliciano Social Justice Prize from the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College and a Mujeres Destacadas/ Outstanding Latinas Award by New York-based Spanish-language newspaper, El Diario/ La Prensa (2004).Yasmin’s latest project, Bieké: Tierra de Valientes explores the people’s struggle against 60+ years of US military maneuvers in the island municipality of Puerto Rico. The work will debut at Vieques’ Museo Fuerte Conde Mirasol in 2009, coinciding with the 10th year since the death of David Sanes, a civilian guard who was killed by a US Navy bomb that missed its target. It was this tragedy that led to the increased popular struggle that succeeded in ending the maneuvers in 2003. The project has received support from the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, and the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture (NALAC). Other recent series include ARCHIVOS SUBVERSIVOS, exploring government surveillance on suspected “subversives” and the political repression targeting the Puerto Rican independence movement. The series is characterized by its use of alternative materials, using actual manila file folders to build mixed-media portraits of targeted individuals. Another popular series, Soul Rebels, features portraits of poets and musicians whose work challenge injustice. The series debuted as part of the 2005 installment of El Museo’s Bienal: The (S) Files as a site-specific installation created on 8 theater door panels in El Museo del Barrio's lobby. The highlight of the Soul Rebels unveiling reception was the surprise appearance of featured Soul Rebel, master Latin Jazz pianist/ composer and 9-time Grammy award winner, Mr. Eddie Palmieri. In 2006 Yasmin was invited to present a special second installment of Soul Rebels, when the (S) Files traveled to El Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico. She was again invited to Puerto Rico to exhibit her work at La Casa Escuté in Carolina during the Second Annual Symposium on African Cultural and Spiritual Traditions in the summer of 2007.Yasmin attended the LaGuardia High School of the Arts in Manhattan and earned a BFA in Painting from Cornell University. Her painting series, Realidades de Quisqueya, created with a grant from the Cornell Council for the Arts, has been on permanent exhibit at the Cornell Latino Studies Program Offices since 1997. She recently completed a mural celebrating revolutionary leaders of women and queer communities for the Edmonia Lewis Center for Women and Transgender People at Oberlin College in Ohio. Currently, the artist is working on another commission documenting 40 years of student activism for the Intercultural Resource Center at Columbia University. Selections of her work over the past decade will be exhibited at a solo show at Taller Puertorriqueño, Inc. in Philadelphia in the fall of 2008.A firm believer that art is an empowering vehicle, Yasmin continues to develop community education initiatives on themes of art and liberation and works on a freelance basis to offer educational workshops and develop curricula for school and community groups at El Museo Del Barrio and the Studio Museum in Harlem. Her monthly presentation series, RebelArte: Visual Charlas, are held at the Cemí Underground Bookstore in El Barrio/ East Harlem. Yasmin’s works can be seen alongside personal testimonials and historical narratives on her website, www.yasminhernandez.com.